Feeling a little lost

Sounds awesome! Knowing this really gets me exited about Javascript! I never thought that I would be into backend stuff, but this is kinda different because its still javascript and I really do enjoy using Javascript.

Can I ask what were a few things you found particularly difficult about learning with Node.JS?

Maybe you could use SonarQube to test your code.

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Hmm this is very interesting. This seems like a pretty powerful and useful tool. Is this something that you personally use regularly?

When I’m consistent enough. :slight_smile:
SonarLint, also, is interesting to know about .

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Well, basically, the people that explained node.js assumed I already knew what a backend was. And I really did not. It was the hardest thing I ever had to learn. What does it do, why do you need it? Let alone the js to go with it. And frankly, there’s easier backends than node.js. Doing CS50 I had to make a backend with flask in python (don’t worry about that, the bits I used were very similar to JS). Everything was being explained slowly and completely. Once I was able to tackle that, node.js wasn’t that impossible anymore.
A backend is the software that talks to a computer. It reads files that are saved on that computer. It writes to this files. It deals with the password that you enter and creates a new account for you. That means it talks to a database where all that information is stored. It’s the bit that will place cookies on someone’s computer (maybe with the password in it). It does so many things. Once you get going with it, it is a lot of fun.
Learning the backend is not harder than learning the frontend. There’s just a lot of it.
The godlike feeling of power it gives multiplies. You can create a chat application with socket.io or a site like https://www.goodreads.com/ or a site that follows up changes on the stock market. (using D3, a library that visualises data in charts). The sky is really the limit.
And I read, don’t know if it’s true, that companies are looking for ‘generalists’, people that can take on the frontent and the backend.
It sounds like a lot and it is but I advice you to persevere. I plateaued for a while (node) and when I got going again I noticed that I started learning faster and faster. If you have a good knowledge of JS, python isn’t that hard any more because there’s overlap. You don’t have to start from scratch anymore.
CS50 also teaches you C (JS is built of of C) and there I learned about pointers. Pointers are dreaded in codeland. They are the Mount Everest of programming. But I persevered and that means C++ isn’t all that hard to learn. I don’t know, I just got sucked in, the more I learn, the hungrier I become.

You may plateau at some point. That will be a lonely and terrible experience. Persevere. At some point somewhere in the future you will notice that your learning speeds up again. Programmers, especially JS programmers are supposed to keep on learning. Everything changes very fast. The good news is, that once you have a good foundation, that new stuff isn’t hard to digest. I notice the same ideas echoing in other languages and being implemented in JS. Once you ‘get’ those ideas they are not hard to pick up.

Hope I haven’t scared you.

Greets,
Karin

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Quite the contrary ! this actually helps because even though Im still new on my JavaScript journey, once I had learned enough to have a pretty decent overview of the language, I felt a little walled in (if that makes sense). I felt that I was learning a programming language that was mostly there for creating event listeners, loops and conditionals for websites. As if Javascript was a pseudo “web building language”. This lack of understanding gave me anxiety and ultimately lead me to create this post :sweat:

I want to learn more alternative ways of using Javascript, like making little game engines and helping me make cool button animations and super minimal but complex web applications :thinking:. Since making this post and getting such great advise ive started working on this chatbot and learning new ways for me to look at and think about Javascript.

Now, with you introducing Node.JS into my realm of possibilities of what Javascript can do; I certainly feel more liberated in my understanding of JS as a programing language.

You’ve definitely helped me out a lot. Thanks so much for all the great information and food for thought :+1:

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HA! wow SonarLint is crazy! Thats like having a coding assistant :sweat_smile:

hello everyone. I often feel like quite overwhelming and like what if everyone knows everything. like for example if i am learning a concept then i often think that no one else should know about that else we all will be at same level. there wont be anything unique about me. i often doubt myself will i be able to get into a good company. can anyone guide me over this…

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I think that this feeling is very normal. Any skill that we begin to learn can become intimidating at the start because we are taking our first steps on a very long journey.

I often like to think of the quote “how do you climb a mountain :mount_fuji:? One step at a time.” OR, “how do you build a house :house_with_garden:? One brick at a time.” .

It may seem like everyone ahead of you knows so much more, or even everything; but this is only the result of lots of time and effort put into learning on their behalf. The thing is that everyone had to start somewhere and I believe that most developers experienced the feelings of doubt you are encountering.

A big part of the journey is learning to overcome your feelings of doubt, or to at least learn to not let them hinder you. Learning to build things with code can be intimidating. Coding carries with it a preconceived notion of complexity, but I believe that if you stick with it and continue to learn small concepts, you will grow to have a powerful understanding over time.

Every person thinks differently and each has a different background. And because of this, I believe that once the necessary skills are achieved, everyone will have a different way of solving and understanding a problem. This is where the uniqueness and value of the individual comes into play.

If you persevere and get to a point where your skills can provide value you will be be able to eventually find a good company. But it will just take time.

Hope I helped :sweat_smile:

Welcome to the community @pallavit !

I don’t have much to add that tuscanny didn’t say.

I will just reiterate that yeah, we all feel that way sometimes. This is ESPECIALLY true while we’re learning. But it never goes away completely - just google “imposter syndrome”.

I would say - don’t worry too much about what other developers know and don’t know better than you. I would say to just focus on growing as a developer, little by little.

This is hard stuff. It takes a while to learn. And then you keep learning new things, forever. This is hard - don’t be too hard on yourself.

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we are currently on the same boat but I guess the key is not to lose hope and plan

I’m finding myself at what feels like a super steep incline in my learning. Admittedly I’ve only just begun, but after breezing through HTML/CSS I was feeling on top of the world, and now not even through the first part of JavaScript, I feel like I’m a toddler trying to understand rocket science. I’m having to take the hint-solutions and write them in myself while reading them aloud to have any grasp of what I’m doing, and even then I still feel cluseless when I get to most of the following tests.

It’s certainly not at the point of me giving up, and I feel confident it’s just a matter of getting to a point where I understand what’s happening, but damn it if it doesn’t have me just staring into the screen sometimes, fearing for my sanity.

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I believe what you are experiencing is totally normal. HTML and CSS are much more straight forward and linear in a sense in comparison to JavaScript. Javascript (like any other programing language) deals in abstractions. It is very hard to understand in the beginning if its your first time programing.

Speaking from experience, I spent about 3 or 4 months learning HTML and CSS and by the end of those 4 months, I pretty much had everything I needed to know. Im still looking to expand my knowledge with more advanced tricks, but for the most part I completely understand the concept. Javascript on the other hand, has taken me just as long to only BEGIN to understand the FUNDAMENTALS.

Javascript it tough, and I think that because HTML and CSS are so much more palatable when first learning, alot of beginners let their guards down or become under the impression that the learning environment of coding is something different from what it actually is.

Yes, the difficulty when learning Javascript is exponentially greater. That is normal. My advise is to just keep pushing through it and EVENTUALLY things will start to make a bit more sense.

My personal tip: Javascript is all about variables, functions, objects, and arrays. Once you study and understand those 4 concepts, you will be well on your way to building on more advance ideas.

Just don’t give up and study frequently and things will begin become clear for you.

Hope this helps. Best of luck.

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Hi @dakotaen !
Welcome to the forum!

This is true of all programming languages. :grinning:

Once you learn the basic fundamentals then you can apply that when you are learning your next programming language.

I know that it is hard right now but it does get easier with practice and time.

Also, building projects along the way will help too.
Javascript 30 is a good resource for that.

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haha oops totally true :sweat_smile:

Its funny because when I first tarted learning Javascript, no one really mentions what the basic concepts are so it felt like there was just an endless amount of concepts that build onto other concepts and that there were no “fundamentals”.

That really confused me because It really made Javascript seem like an ocean of information that had no end or beginning.

But only after watching tutorial after tutorial and taking online class after online class did I see that for the most part, there was a commonality to what was being taught. Then after that, its about how you as a programmer combine those things to build what you are working to build.

In the beginning it was impossible for me to kinda know that so I thought it would be worth it to mention that to @dakotaen . :rofl:

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If you want project ideas you can do the one’s from FCC, FCC also has a YT video of 15 projects that you can try, there’s the Odin Project curriculum, the JavaScript 30 that @jwilkins.oboe mentioned, and a Google search can bring some up.

When you’re ready play around with some API’s here’s a link to some: GitHub - public-apis/public-apis: A collective list of free APIs and use JSON Server Up & Running with JSON Server (Part 1) - YouTube

Then learn some frameworks like Vue, Angular, or React. I personally like Vue.

You can even learn some Boostrap and Sass. Both are available on FCC or you can try Brad Traversy on YT

Then go on to discover Node, Express, and MongoDb. Then add a framework.

Show off your best work with a portfolio. FCC has a portfolio project you can do and you can add your best work as you continue learning. The rest of your projects can go up on GitHub.

It will take time. Take steps and don’t forget to take brakes. Good luck!

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Thanks a bunch for the replies, suggestions, and resources!

I’m super happy to hear that it’s not just a me-thing. Currently I put in around 3-4 hours/day, more when I’m not driven mad by my lack of understanding (and when it’s not as hot and humid as Denmark has been this week :hot_face:), so I’m sure I’ll get there at some point.

For now, I think I’ll run through the initial 111 bits in Basic JavaScript again, and spend a couple hours messing with HTML/CSS every day to finish off.

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